Randa Mustafa

Proud new Boeing design engineer

Randa Mustafa changed her approach to mechanical engineering after taking the University of Washington Bothell “Citizen Engineer” course.

“It opened my mind — by taking a holistic approach in engineering problems and by understanding the environmental and societal impact of my work in local, national and global contexts,” Mustafa says. “We talked about sustainability, ethics and social justice.”

This classroom experience connected to the real world for her when she participated on a community-based learning team that built a rainwater collection system at the 21 Acres sustainable education farm in Woodinville, Washington. The system uses solar power to pump rainwater into drip lines at a greenhouse. “It was a great experience,” she says, “combining our engineering skills with lessons from ‘Citizen Engineer’ and then putting them into practice.”

While at UW Bothell, Mustafa served as president of the Bothell Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE) student club, promoting women in technology fields at events such as the University’s STEM Festival for middle school students.

She was part of the UW Bothell student team that collaborated on a research project with Professor Pierre Mourad and lab manager Ivan Owen to control a prosthetic hand with sensors in an arm band.

The past two years, Mustafa also interned with The Boeing Company on the 737NG program in Renton and the 777X program in Everett. She will start working for the company full time after graduating with her degree in mechanical engineering. “I’ll proudly be joining The Boeing Company as a structures design engineer,” she says.

The University’s “diverse and welcoming community made it easy for me to make most of the Husky experience,” Mustafa says. “I couldn’t have had a better experience to prepare me as a future engineer and contributing citizen.”